Elite Women in Early Modern Catholic Europe

Cinzia Recca is reader in Early Modern History at the University of Catania, Italy, in the Department of Education. Her main field of research includes the European Enlightenment, especially court studies and women's roles. In recent years, she has initiated a demanding research activity focused on the figure of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples through the analysis of unpublished sources (diary and correspondence). She is the author of The diary of Maria Carolina of Naples, 1781-1785. New evidence of Queenship at Court (2017). Francisco Precioso Izquierdo is reader in Modern History at the University of Murcia, Spain. His field of research integrates the analysis of the noble elites of the Hispanic world at the end of the seventeenth century from a family, political, and cultural perspective. In recent years, his research has been oriented towards the study of the idea of nobility in Spanish society in the eighteenth century. He is the author of Melchor Macanaz. La derrota de un “héroe”. Poder político y movilidad familiar en la España Moderna (2017).

Introduction 1. Naples 1536, or Rather of Nobility, Politics and Noblewomen 2. Building memory: Margherita of Austria and Her Dynastic History ‘en femenino’ 3. Chocolate, Masses and Spiritual Heritage: Female Networks in Early Modern Turin around the Compagnia dell’ Umiltà (Company of Humility): 17th-18th Centuries 4. “In the distressing circumstances”: Female Resolve and Resistance of Rank. Marguerite-Louise d’Orléans and Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg in Diplomatic Records 5. Women in the Family and Political Strategies of the High Aristocracy in the Late 17th Century 6. Educating a Future Queen of France. The case of Princess Marie Adelaide of Savoy and Madame de Maintenon, Royal Educator 7. Noblewomen and the Management of Family Wealth in Sicily at the End of the 18th century: the Case of Anna Morso, Princess of Biscari 8. Family and Female Power: The Wills of Aristocratic Women in Spain at the End of the Ancien Régime 9. A Place for Sentiments and Feelings Among Spanish Aristocratic Women (1760-1820) 10. “Considering the merits of your late husband…”. How Women Received a Title in Early Nineteenth-century Spain (1808-1854)